Open Your Eyes
by Aymzie
Summary: Marauders Era. When a joke on Christmas Day goes too far, everyone finds themselves thinking things through again. Not a great summary, but please R&R if you have a spare moment. Eventual L/J, paused for now due to too many ideas floating around.
1. Chapter 1

You know the drill: I own nothing you recognize from HP books 1-7, or anything else that was originally from JKR. Everything else is miinneee... O_O

This is just another Marauders era fic, just my idea of what happened. It starts off 6th year, and I have no idea how long I'll be writing it for.

Reviews are like freshly baked cookies... With chocolate chips.

Thanks, hope you enjoy it :)

* * *

I don't think that the fire had ever seemed so welcoming as it did when I walking into the common room that December night. The sky had clouded over long enough ago, but it didn't seem to matter that the stars were no longer visible. There was something about spending Christmas at Hogwarts that made it somehow more special; it really made everything feel more like family.

"Evening, Marley," Lily said, from where she was curled up in the corner of the seat. "How're you?"

"I'm great thanks, you? Feeling any better?"

"Yeah, a bit. Still a bit achey, though. How was the end of the feast?"

"It was nice. Pudding was amazing this year."

"Which means lots of chocolate, right?"

"Lots and lots of chocolate."

I grinned, and flopped down onto the sofa, grabbing a cushion to hug. I have no idea why, but when I was happy, I always hugged cushions. Just one of those things, I guess.

And at that exact moment, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin walked through the portrait hole. James and Sirius were acting as if they were the coolest of cool, and to be fair they were looking pretty cool today, and Remus was walking behind them, like the brother keeping an eye out for them. James saw Lily, so obviously they bee-lined to where we were sitting. I noticed Lily roll her eyes slightly as James sat on the arm of her chair and slid down so he was practically squashing her. Sirius has sat on the other seat of the sofa I was on, his arm lolling over the back, and Remus was sitting on the rug by the fire.

"You know this is making it pretty hard for me to breath?" Lily said, wincing.

"I guess it is," James replied, smirking. "Would you mind if I asked where you went in the middle of the feast?"

"I felt sick, and my head hurt."

"Ah. So you probably don't want me sitting on you right now?"

"Nope."

James smiled to himself, and slid from the chair to the floor, leaning against her legs.

"So, Evans?"

"Not again, James..." Remus sighed, and looked back into the fire.

"Not after you just nearly suffocated her," Sirius warned.

"No, no, I have a good feeling about this time..."

"I don't," Sirius said quietly. I think I was the only one who heard, even if he didn't intend me to.

"Lily Evans, will you go out with me?" James said, with pleading in his eyes.

"Thanks for the sentiments, but no."

"How many times have I heard that and known that you were wrong?"

"You're deluded."

"Wait, wait, wait, I have another one up my sleeve."

"Oh, no..." Sirius said, rolling his head back, and Remus laughed in a you-already-know-what's-going-to-happen sort of way.

"Lily Evans..." James sat up and somehow managed to move so he was balancing on one knee...

"Oh no oh no," I said, whilst Sirius murmured, "I knew that was a really bad idea..."

James was half laughing as he was talking. "Will you marry me?"

"You have got to be kidding me," Lily said. "Erm, I'm sorry, James, but I'm going to have to refuse."

"Why?" James asked, faking innocence.

"Why what?"

"Why no?"

"Because nobody could ever be able to refuse someone like you proposing like that, Jamsie," Sirius said, hiding his hysterics.

"No. Because you're probably just joking around anyways. And I'm 16 and we're still in school and... Can you really see us married, with you being all desperate and asking me out every other hour?"

There was an awkward pause. "You think I'm being desperate?" James asked quietly.

"I, er, think we should leave them to it..." Sirius whispered, and I nodded. Sirius gestured to Remus, and the three of us walked off into the corner of the common room.

I don't know why, but things had suddenly turned very cold. I hugged myself and leaned against the wall, whilst we watched James and Lily try to talk about what had just happened. It was a pretty dire situation really, beacuse now Lily would be feeling bad for James and James would be trying to figure out where to go from there.

"He shouldn't have proposed," Sirius muttered. "Thats where it all went wrong..."

"You think?" I said.

He looked across at me with raised eyebrows. "No, I'm just guessing."

"Do you think this is going to change the whole dynamic of, well, everything?" Remus asked.

"Maybe. Maybe it'll force James to grow up a little bit. Or maybe Lily'll see that he really does have a heart."

"Ah, but does he?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he does," Sirius replied. "He's just not all that great at showing it."

I nodded, and leaned my head back. We watched Lily get up, motion for me to follow her, and rush up to the dormitory.

"Guess I'd better be going then," I said, and started ambling after her.

"Night," Remus said. "Happy Christmas. Night. Again."

"Yeah, Happy Christmas-Night-Again,' Sirius repeated.

I laughed and looked back. Remus was rolling his eyes, but still grinning, and Sirius was laughing about it.

"Yeah, well, you too!" I said, and disappeared through the door, starting to climb the steps to the common room, which seemed longer and steeper than normal, maybe because today had been such a long day. A 98% good day, but still, a long one.

As a walked into the dormitory, Lily was laying on her bed, looking pretty confused. I guessed that she hadn't realized that James had a heart yet.

"What happened?" I asked.

She sat up and sighed. "I really don't know. Problem with James is you never know if he means what he's saying."

"I don't know, he looked kinda sincere about it..."

"You can never be sure."

"Look I see why you don't trust him..."

"But he got his little friends to convince you he's not a bad guy whilst he was trying to apologize for asking me out so much and, you know, accidentally proposing. The guy needs to grow up a little bit if you ask me."

"Probably. Unless he really did mean it as a joke..."

"Or he really does have a heart, he's just not all that great at expressing his emotions," I said quickly, paraphrasing what Sirius had said only a few minutes earlier.

"Where did that come from?"

"No where." There was a moment of silence, before I said, "So are you going to give him a chance?"

"I will give him a chance when his ego gets chopped into little pieces and he only gets to keep one of them. And it's been enchanted so it will never grow."

"Wouldn't it be painful if someone chopped your ego up?"

"That may be part of the point."

"Have you thought this through before?"

She paused. "Maybe... Anyway, I think we should drop it for today, and sleep on it. I don't know about you, but I know that I have loads to think about..."

I just nodded, and let Lily turn the light out. It was one of those nights when it was too late to care that you were going to bed fully clothed. Because even though Lily didn't know it, I did have a lot to think about, and it was all racing around my mind, always racing, never time for me to stop and think it through logically. But did I really want to stop and analyze every single moment to see if he liked me too, or did I just want to keep on floating in a sea of maybe's? I sighed, rolled onto my side, and closed my eyes. Lily was right, of course, it was too late to try and figure things out tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: You know what I do or don't own.

I've been writing like crazy today... It's, well, crazy. So I'm posting two chapters in one day. Yay!

Reviews are awesome. :)

* * *

Boxing day. I woke up earlier than normal, but I wasn't surprised. I'd found it hard to sleep last night. It had been one of those nights when you were defiantly awake, but still dreaming at the same time, dreams that you couldn't control and made even less sense than regular dreams.

I rolled over and looked across at the clock: 6:57am. Breakfast was at nine, Lily was still asleep, and Gina, our resident insomniac, was home for Christmas. Sighing, I pulled myself out of bed, got a red jumper and some old jeans from my bag, and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

15 minutes later I was dressed and washed, and Lily was still asleep. Sighing. I dropped my towel and yesterdays clothes on my bed and headed downstairs to dry my hair by the fire.

If it had been term time, the common room would have been full of people sitting around and talking and doing last minute homework before breakfast, and it was eerie to see it so quiet. I sat down by the fire, which was already burning brightly, and started brushing through my hair. All the Christmas decorations were still up, but with nobody else here it all seemed slightly forlorn, and not quite right. I sat there for a while, and slowly my hair started to be slightly less wet.

"Morning, Marley." I heard someone say.

I turned away from the fire, eyes burning slightly, and saw James standing there in an old gray t-shirt and jeans, looking like he'd slept even less than I had.

"Hey. You don't look so great..."

"Don't feel it either," he said, half falling onto the sofa. "Is Lily up yet?"

"She wasn't when I left... What time it it?"

"Er... Just past 8, I think. Did she say anything about it?"

"Not much, just that she had no idea what had just happened. She didn't really believe your apology."

"I thought as much," James sighed. "Hey, Marley, you know her pretty well, right?"

"I'd say so."

"Act as if it never happened. And stop asking her out so much, it's not cool and it doesn't really leave a good impression on you. And she'd probably want you to grow up just a little bit."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

James lay back on the sofa, and he looked totally shattered. In the silence, I tried to remember when his obsession with Lily started. It was defiantly sometime in first year, but it wasn't right away. It must have been in the summer term, when we were sitting under the tree by the lake. James just swaggered up to us and asked her out, and when she said no, he walked back off to Sirius, Remus, and Peter, and said something along the lines of 'She'll be going out with me by the end of the week.' Apparantly, Sirius said 'I bet she won't!' And, nearly six years later, James hasn't given up on the bet yet. He isn't a quitter.

That's all that it could be, a competitive guy not giving up on a long forgotten bet. But I liked to think that it was something more, that over the years he really had fallen for Lily, and fallen hard, and that he wasn't asking her out to annoy her or for the sake of it, but because somewhere in the bottom of his heart, he may be discovering that he liked her more than he thought he did.

"Marley?" James asked.

"Yeah?"

"I owe you."

I smiled at that, and three giggling third years frolicked down the stairs, and sat in some chairs near the portrait hole, and they were quickly followed by Lily, her slightly frizzy red hair loose down to her shoulders, instead of tied back is it normally was.

"Morning, Marley," Lily said as she ambled over. "When did you wake up?"

"Just before 7, you?"

"About three minutes ago. Morning, James."

"Hey, Lils."

He called her Lils... Not a good start. Lily smiled coldly and nodded, sitting down on the chair she was on the night before.

It was a lazy morning, with Sirius, Remus, and Peter gradually appearing down the stairs. Everyone seemed a little tired and perplexed by something, and we were almost silent as we were, walking down to breakfast, very strange. But that wasn't going to be the strangest thing that happened that day.

As James was loading sausages onto his plate (it's a miracle he was so skinny), a tawny owl flew in through the arches at the end of the great hall and landed in his empty bowl. Eyebrows raised, he picked it up, shaking it a little, and pulled a letter from the owls leg, glancing at the envelope.

"It's for you, Sirius," he said, passing along the letter. "Stupid owl, maybe I wasn't done with that porridge..."

"But you obviously were," I replied slowly.

"But maybe, in some other universe, I was eating slowly."

"But in this universe, the bowl was empty," Remus pointed out. "And you eat like a really fast pig, even when you're eating slowly."

James shrugged, and started eating his more than full English breakfast, whilst Sirius read his letter, a flippant look on his face. "It's a 'Christmas Present' from my parents. Basically a letter to say hey, glad you're staying at school, have three galleons to make up for our lack of love and basic decent parenting."

He dropped the three large gold coins on the table.

"Well, if you don't want it, I always need some more money..." Lily grinned, but Sirius covered the money with his hand as if it was reflex, and glared at her. The rest of us couldn't help but laugh.

"Seriously, though, you have no idea how much I'm dreading going home for summer."

"Then don't go home, "James replied simply.

"Sure, I'll just live out on the streets all summer. Will be a hell of a lot better that where I would be going."

"No, I don't mean that, stupid," James replied. "You can move in with me, I'm pretty sure my folks won't mind much."

Sirius smirked, which turned into a wide smile, which turned into a grin, and he had the urge to just hug James there and then.

"Woah, woah, woah... I really don't feel like falling of the bench this morning..." James said, and Sirius ended the hug, looking more ecstatic than I'd ever seen him, which affected the rest of our moods vastly. "So I'm guessing you're in?"

"You bet!" Sirius said, and he made a noise that sounded like a 'squee'-ing.

"Won't your parents, like, disown you?" Peter asked.

"Practically have already," Sirius replied, bursting with enthusiasm.

Everyone was grinning, and I let my eyes wander up to the enchanted ceiling, where it was still snowing.

"It's been snowing for, like, 3 weeks..." I commented.

"It's still snowing?" Remus murmured.

"Hey, what happened to that snowball fight that we never had yesterday?"


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the shortness of chapter. I think school's trying to eat me alive. Which isn't as fun as it sounds...

* * *

We were cold, tired, and achey when we made it up to the common room to warm up before lunch, but something about the buzz of a snowball fight of such epic proportions was still hanging in the air. We had thrashed the Slytherins, with the help of a couple of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. It was like a massive bonding time, bonding with people I'd never spoken to before. I didn't even know some of their names, but it was still fun.

"Did you see it when I hit your cousin? Flat on in the face!" James was saying, full of self praise.

"I so did!" Sirius replied, still ecstatic from this morning. "It was awesome!"

"I think I heard her squeal..." Remus said quietly from his spot on the floor, making James and Sirius burst out laughing again.

"Aren't you guys all cold and wet?" Lily asked, curled up by the fire.

"I don't feel the cold much any more," Sirius grinned.

"Sure you don't, Paddy," James replied.

"Paddy?" I asked.

"Just a new nickname we're trying out," James explained.

"Ah. It sounds kinda... Irish."

"Well... I could be Irish," Sirius joked, his eyes lighting up again as they did when he was creating some extravagant tale. "In fact, I am Irish. I was born to two leprichorns just outside Dublin and then they were kindof mad because they wanted a girl and threw me down the wishing well. And I must have wished to be human, because... Well, that's what I am now."

"Sirius," Remus said, "That is the least sense you have made in a long time, and that's saying something."

"Well, it's my pleasure to confuse you some more," Sirius grinned.

James frowned and laughed at the same time. "Well, we weren't confused before... But I'm pretty sure we are now."

"Should I just stop talking?"

"Yeah."

We sat there grinning for a while in the quiet, whilst some students who were in the years below us were watching and egging on a game of wizards chess. Sirius was staring over at the chess board.

"E7 to F8," said the white player and his bishop moved across one place.

"No no no no no!" Sirius said in anguish. "Should have castled then! Should have castled, do you hear me?'

"We hear you, man."

"I play the winner, 'kay?" Sirius called across to them.

The fourth year who was playing black looked up at him with a challenging grin. "You're on."

I looked over at him. "How do you know that he's going to win?"

"Look at the board, it's pretty obvious. It they play it right it should be checkmate in three go's."

And he was right, Freckly-Forth-Year had ended the game pretty quickly. I'd have been pretty intimidated by that, but Sirius, jut walked up to the table cooly, a cocky smile on his face. It looked like he was being over confident, but Sirius was really, really good at chess. Maybe it came from years of practice, maybe it was inherited, or maybe it was just a gift, but it didn't matter - he was easily one of the best chess players in the year, maybe even the school.

"Hey, you're Sirius Black, right?" Freckly-Forth-Year said, and Sirius just smiled and nodded. "Yeah, cool, I'm Derek. I've heard you're real good."

"Well, Derek, that may be because I am," Sirius replied, and so the match began.

Derek was a promising talent, but Sirius had the advantage of age and a competitive family with a 'better-than-you' mindset. He was also very good at tricking people to make them think that he was struggling, when he knew exactly what he was doing. He always tried to play life like he knew exactly what he was doing, and what everyone else was thinking.

But none of us know exactly what anyone else was thinking.


End file.
